Savannah Morning News | Brandon Larrabeehttp://savannahnow.com/sms/taxonomy/term/297/
enState looks at closing mental hospitalshttp://savannahnow.com/brandon-larrabee/2008-12-13/state-looks-closing-mental-hospitals
<p>ATLANTA - The state agency charged with caring for Georgia's mentally ill is considering privatizing much or all of the public mental-hospital network and shuttering facilities in cities including Savannah and Augusta.</p>
<p>Officials at the state Department of Human Resources, which also handles social services such as child welfare, say no final decisions have been made about whether to privatize the system.</p>
<p>The department is working to correct problems that have led to a spate of media stories about shoddy care at the hospitals and a federal Department of Justice investigation.</p>
<p>An outline of the plan distributed to advocates and providers calls for consolidating the seven mental hospitals into two and relying more on community-based services, a long-standing state policy goal. The plan has its detractors.</p>
<p>Sen.-elect Lester Jackson, a Savannah Democrat who has served in the Georgia House for almost a decade, said consolidating long-term care at two hospitals could undermine family connections and hurt efforts to reach Georgians who need help.</p>
<p>"I think we'll be dealing with a situation where people with mental-health problems are going to be sleeping under bridges or walking homeless through our streets," he said. "The state of Georgia has an obligation to take care of the least of us."</p>
<p>Moreover, because the consolidation goal has been unrealized for so long, advocates have reacted cautiously to the plan, saying they want to see the new community-based services open up before the hospitals are consolidated. Also, they say they don't know whether the privatization would lead to better care for patients.</p>
<p>"I want them to show me the community treatment before we shut down more facilities," said Nora Haynes, president of the National Alliance on Mental Illness' Georgia chapter. "I feel like once they're shut down, if it's the wrong thing to do, we'd pay hell getting them opened up again. It just would never happen."</p>
</p>
<p>State slow to act</p>
<p>The only concrete action the state has taken toward enacting the plan has been to issue a "request for proposals" to potential contractors for the unit at the mental hospital in Savannah that deals with patients who have run into legal problems. That unit likely would be consolidated with a location elsewhere in the state.</p>
<p>"If, through that RFP process, it's found that it's not the best way to move forward, then it won't happen," said Dena Smith, spokeswoman for the Department of Human Resources.</p>
<p>Smith, however, would not say what impact the results of the Savannah request for proposals might have on the rest of the plan.</p>
<p>"I think that you've got to take one RFP process at a time. ... There's only that one RFP out there, and certainly if the information from the RFP comes back that it's not the best thing for the state, then it won't be done," she said.</p>
</p>
<p>Action next year</p>
<p>But a copy of the outline obtained by Morris News Service shows the state moving rapidly to close down its institutions and switch to private providers. By the end of June, the state would send out requests for proposals for new hospitals in Atlanta and in south-central Georgia, closing the Savannah hospital. The Savannah institution would instead offer some of the community-based services envisioned in the plan.</p>
<p>The mental-health hospital in Columbus would close by June 30, 2011. The next fiscal year, DHR officials would shutter all or part of facilities in Augusta, Rome, Thomasville, Atlanta and Milledgeville. The Augusta hospital would continue to operate 250 beds for patients with developmental disabilities.</p>
<p>By that time, the two private hospitals - in metro Atlanta and in south-central Georgia, likely Milledgeville - would open. Any Georgia resident needing long-term mental-health care would end up at one of those facilities.</p>
<p>"One of the things that we'd like to do is to get state-of-the-art hospitals. ... Privatization is just one way to see, through the RFP process, if that's a possibility," Smith said.</p>
</p>
<p>Legislators cautious</p>
<p>Lawmakers are also reacting cautiously to the plan while acknowledging changes are necessary to address the problems at the state hospitals.</p>
<p>"We're at the bottom of the barrel," said state Sen. Renee Unterman, R-Buford, vice chairwoman of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee. "We literally have people dying in mental-health hospitals. There could be no other consequences that could be greater."</p>
http://savannahnow.com/brandon-larrabee/2008-12-13/state-looks-closing-mental-hospitals#commentsBrandon LarrabeeSun, 14 Dec 2008 04:30:00 +0000Brandon Larrabee635812 at http://savannahnow.comState leaders detail transparent budget cutshttp://savannahnow.com/brandon-larrabee/2008-12-10/state-leaders-detail-transparent-budget-cuts
<p>ATLANTA - The directors of several state agencies say they had taken steps to streamline their organizations even before a recent budget crisis, and that those cost-cutting measures will help the state get through rocky economic times.</p>
<p>At a Wednesday event arranged for reporters by Gov. Sonny Perdue's office, the commissioners of agencies in charge of prisons and the state's child welfare system - among others - told of the changes their departments had undertaken as the state faces spending cuts that could reach 10 percent or more.</p>
<p>Officials said many of the changes started before the fiscal upheaval and were as much good-government measures as cost-saving initiatives. But they could still help the state save more money and soften the sting of potential services cuts.</p>
<p>"We're all going through a fundamental shift in the way we do our business," said Joseph Doyle, director of the Governor's Office of Customer Service, which has helped many of the agencies in what Doyle called "a quiet revolution."</p>
<p>"It's getting better results for existing resources," Doyle said.</p>
<p>Those results are more than just bureaucratic babble, the officials said.</p>
<p>The Division of Family and Children Services, part of the Department of Human Resources, has reduced case loads for employees and now finishes 90 percent of its investigations within 30 days, the agency said.</p>
<p>The state's prison networks also are looking for ways to cut back while still handling increasing numbers of inmates. Juvenile Justice Commissioner Albert Murray said his agency is avoiding the need for construction funding by revamping adult prisons to create new facilities for juvenile inmates.</p>
<p>Corrections Commissioner James Donald said a new prison design, borrowed from Mississippi, allowed the state to house 256 inmates in a facility overseen by about 20 guards - down from the 60 or so guards once needed to keep an eye on about 200 prisoners.</p>
<p>Donald also has pushed a policy shift expected to slice the cost of supervising low-risk offenders two thirds by using more "day reporting centers" where they check in rather than diversion centers that house inmates. The change focused the centers more on drug-related property crimes and provided more services to help addicts break their dependencies.</p>
<p>"We have the toughest laws in the nation. We have a tough parole board. If you do the crime in Georgia, you're going to do the time. And we like it that way," Donald said, saying violent or dangerous criminals should still be sent to prisons. "But if we're just mad at them, then there ought to be some alternatives.</p>
<p>"We had too many and still have too many lock-ups."</p>
http://savannahnow.com/brandon-larrabee/2008-12-10/state-leaders-detail-transparent-budget-cuts#commentsBrandon LarrabeeThu, 11 Dec 2008 04:30:00 +0000Brandon Larrabee634284 at http://savannahnow.comFixed for Four facing difficultieshttp://savannahnow.com/brandon-larrabee/2008-12-07/fixed-four-facing-difficulties
<p>ATLANTA - More than two years into the University System of Georgia's attempt to allow students to more easily predict how much four years of college will cost them, the Fixed for Four program is facing its most serious challenge yet.</p>
<p>The potential for steep cuts across the state budget to slash $182 million or more in higher-education spending prompted the board of regents to approve last week a fee of between $50 and $100 per semester at each of Georgia's 35 public colleges and universities.</p>
<p>Regents opted for the fee because Fixed for Four doesn't allow midyear tuition increases. Essentially, the program guarantees college students the same tuition rate for their first four years in college.</p>
<p>Earlier this year, Chancellor Erroll Davis said the university system would have to re-examine the policy if state lawmakers cut too deeply into the enrollment-driven funding formula that is supposed to guide spending on higher education.</p>
<p>"If we do not get full formula funding, then obviously we're going to have to look at our ability, for any particular cohort, to maintain fixed tuition," Davis said in August.</p>
<p>There are no immediate plans to scale back the guaranteed tuition plan, officials say, and current students would likely be grandfathered in even if the system decided to take another look at the plan.</p>
<p>"That's a commitment to our students, and we certainly don't take our commitments lightly," said Usha Ramachandran, vice chancellor for fiscal affairs, after meeting with students concerned about the fee increase. "The plan is to continue it."</p>
<p>The main selling points for guaranteed tuition are its predictability - students and parents know exactly what the tuition costs will be each year - and the notion that it provides a financial incentive for students to graduate in four years instead of taking five or six years or longer. Tuition increases significantly for students after the fourth year.</p>
<p>But the plan has also caused the overall cost of four years of college to accelerate.</p>
<p>For example, students entering college this fall will pay 8 percent more for their education than the class who entered last year.</p>
<p>An in-state student who entered one of the state's four research universities in fall 2005, however, will have paid about 6.1 percent more over four years than a student entering a year earlier.</p>
<p>Even so, some college presidents are already beginning to grumble that the tuition plan is causing problems with budgets as the cost of doing business in higher education grows more rapidly than tuition.</p>
<p>"I think Fixed for Four, while it's a very nice political concept, is not an economically viable concept," former Georgia State University President Carl Patton said in August. "Our electricity is not fixed for four. Our water is not fixed for four. ... We have to compete in the national market for faculty. That's not fixed for four."</p>
<p>Rep. Bob Smith, the Watkinsville Republican who chairs the House budget panel on higher education, said he's heard similar complaints from other presidents.</p>
<p>"In talking with some of the presidents quietly and some of the administrators around this state, they're not real wild about it," he said.</p>
<p>Energy costs, particularly in the form of diesel fuel for buses at larger campuses, are a major source of concern, Smith said.</p>
</p>
<p>Mixed results</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Davis told lawmakers last week that many students still aren't aware of the program and that students' progress toward graduation is not improving as much as state officials might like.</p>
<p>"The results, quite candidly, are mixed," he said.</p>
<p>After two years, 47 percent of students who entered college in fall 2006 have 30 to 59 hours of credit. (A full-time student typically takes 12 to 15 hours a semester, or 24 to 30 hours a year.) That's down from 54 percent of students who entered in fall 2004.</p>
<p>A few of the students are earning more credit: 21 percent of students from the 2006 class have earned 60 hours of credit or more, compared with 19 percent from the 2004 cohort. But the number of students with 29 or fewer hours has jumped from 27 percent to 32 percent.</p>
<p>Still, state lawmakers say the program should remain to see if it can improve four-year graduation rates.</p>
<p>"The real purpose behind Fixed for Four was to cause them to move quickly trough the process and go on, get out of school," said Senate Higher Education Committee Chairman Seth Harp, R-Midland. "And that's what we want to have happen."</p>
http://savannahnow.com/brandon-larrabee/2008-12-07/fixed-four-facing-difficulties#commentsBrandon LarrabeeMon, 08 Dec 2008 04:30:00 +0000Brandon Larrabee631979 at http://savannahnow.comState ponders road plans under Obamahttp://savannahnow.com/brandon-larrabee/2008-12-03/state-ponders-road-plans-under-obama
<p>ATLANTA - State officials are waiting to see how the change of power in Washington could affect transportation projects across Georgia.</p>
<p>Georgia legislators and the board of the state Department of Transportation met Wednesday to discuss funding. But they spent much of the time talking about how the incoming Obama administration might change the federal government's transportation focus in the coming years.</p>
<p>One immediate possibility is a more than $100 billion infrastructure plan expected to go before Congress in January. State transportation Commissioner Gena Evans, who has said Georgia realistically might expect to start work on projects worth a total of $1 billion over the next 18 months, said state officials are laying the groundwork for the potential windfall.</p>
<p>"We are doing everything we can just to ensure we are ready," she told lawmakers and board members.</p>
<p>Evans repeated a statement that Georgia would not have enough money to participate in a matching program, meaning the federal government would have to provide all the funding for the road-building initiative - an element of a larger stimulus package proposed by President-elect Barack Obama.</p>
<p>In addition to the state's budget crisis, which could result in budget cuts of 10 percent or more, the Department of Transportation has dramatically scaled back construction projects to rein in a deficit caused by spending practices before Evans became commissioner.</p>
<p>Evans said the state would compete for any high-speed rail funding that the federal government made available in the next few years. Rail is expected to become a priority for the federal Department of Transportation, Evans said, but she added that those projects were also "a little bit out of (the state's) range."</p>
<p>At least one lawmaker encouraged the state to make sure it went after any federal program for high-speed rail lines that could cross the state.</p>
<p>"I would much rather be spending billions of dollars on that than on Wall Street and Detroit," said state Sen. Cecil Staton, R-Macon.</p>
<p>Another, more subtle change that could be caused by the power shift in Washington is how the reauthorization of federal road-building legislation will be structured.</p>
<p>Evans said Georgia officials had discussed with the Bush administration the idea of accepting 90 percent of the state's transportation funding in the form of a block grant in return for greater freedom on projects, including avoiding or streamlining the approval process for some federal rules, such as environmental and historical preservation regulations.</p>
<p>"Those federal requirements are absolutely killing our projects," she said.</p>
<p>The Bush administration also proposed reducing the number of programs under which states receive their funding. That required Georgia to use the money on infrastructure projects that weren't high on the state's priority list.</p>
http://savannahnow.com/brandon-larrabee/2008-12-03/state-ponders-road-plans-under-obama#commentsBrandon LarrabeeThu, 04 Dec 2008 04:30:00 +0000Brandon Larrabee629308 at http://savannahnow.comRegents ready to approve fee, health care changeshttp://savannahnow.com/brandon-larrabee/2008-12-02/regents-ready-approve-fee-health-care-changes
<p>ATLANTA - Regents are set to approve a plan Wednesday that would increase student fees and force employees to pay more for their health insurance as the state's budget crisis deepens.</p>
<p>The proposal would place a fee of $50 a semester on students at two-year and four-year colleges, $75 at most four-year universities and $100 at the state's four research institutions - the University of Georgia, Medical College of Georgia, Georgia Tech and Georgia State. It also calls for University System of Georgia employees to pay for 30 percent of the cost of their health care plans, up from 25 percent.</p>
<p>Both changes would take effect Jan. 1. Employees would be allowed a new open enrollment period to change their coverage if the insurance plan is approved.</p>
<p>Regents approved the outline of the plan in August as a way to deal with budget cuts if they climbed as high as 8 percent. With state tax revenue figures still bleak, most economists and observers expect the cuts to reach at least 8 percent and potentially 10 percent or more.</p>
<p>"The priority has clearly been that if we go to a higher level of cuts, we're trying as much as possible now to protect that core instruction mission," said John Millsaps, a spokesman for the university system. "So the only way to do that at this point ... is to take action that doesn't really directly impact that classroom."</p>
<p>The fee allows the regents to increase the amount students have to pay for an education without breaking the "Fixed for Four" tuition guarantee the system charges most students. As a fee, the increase also won't be covered by the HOPE Scholarship's fee allowance, capped by the legislature in 2004.</p>
<p>On Tuesday, spokespersons for both Savannah State University and Armstrong Atlantic State University declined comment until after today's vote in Atlanta.</p>
<p>Senate Higher Education Committee Chairman Seth Harp, R-Midland, said the fee increase and health care change likely won't be enough to balance the system's budget.</p>
<p>"If our budget projections hold true, we're going to have a shortfall and this is not going to be anywhere near enough cuts and increases to make up for that," Harp said. "So there's going to have to be a lot more things happening."</p>
<p>But Rep. Bob Smith, R-Watkinsville, warned against cutting too deeply into the university system's budget, arguing that research and development at the higher education institutions could help turn the state's economy around.</p>
<p>"I think it's the wrong thing to do," said Smith, who chairs the House subcommittee overseeing the regents' budget. "We need to enhance research now."</p>
http://savannahnow.com/brandon-larrabee/2008-12-02/regents-ready-approve-fee-health-care-changes#commentsBrandon LarrabeeWed, 03 Dec 2008 04:30:00 +0000Brandon Larrabee627864 at http://savannahnow.comSenator: Combine black colleges with othershttp://savannahnow.com/brandon-larrabee/2008-12-01/senator-combine-black-colleges-others
<p>ATLANTA - Combining some historically black colleges and universities with their once-segregationist counterparts could provide some savings as the state battles a budget deficit that could top $2 billion, a key lawmaker said Monday.</p>
<p>At a meeting exploring higher-education spending, Senate Higher Education Committee Chairman Seth Harp, R-Midland, floated the idea of combining historically black schools like Savannah State University with nearby institutions like Armstrong Atlantic State University.</p>
<p>Harp argued that the move could actually strengthen the once-black schools and help Georgia move firmly beyond its troubled racial history.</p>
<p>"It's time that Georgia closed that political chapter," Harp said.</p>
<p>But Chancellor Erroll Davis, the first permanent black leader of the University System of Georgia, told lawmakers they would have to lend their support to any effort to consolidate colleges.</p>
<p>"We will need a political will to do that, because each of these institutions has been in business for a long time," Davis said.</p>
</p>
<p>Not a new idea</p>
<p>Talk of a merger between Savannah State and Armstrong Atlantic State universities is nothing new.</p>
<p>The idea first came about in 1971 when the schools were desegregated. Savannah State is the oldest public historically black college in Georgia, founded in 1890.</p>
<p>Armstrong was founded as a junior college by the city of Savannah in 1935 and became part of the State University System in 1959.</p>
<p>Both schools were racially segregated until the state came under the federal desegregation order.</p>
<p>After much planning, debate and controversy, the system decided against a merger and integrated by swapping Savannah State's teacher education program with Armstrong's business program.</p>
<p>A merger was discussed seriously in the 1980s when the university system reorganization resulted in Georgia Southern becoming a regional university.</p>
<p>That debate ended in Georgia Southern taking over SSU and AASU graduate programs.</p>
<p>When the university system granted university status to SSU and AASU in 1996, the merger issue surfaced again.</p>
<p>When Davis took over in 2006, worries about a merger surfaced in Savannah.</p>
<p>Davis assuaged those fears when he spoke before the Downtown Chapter of the Rotary Club, and he continues to think a merger would raise many political, cultural, economic and educational issues, said spokesman John Milsaps.</p>
<p>"At this point it's not on the regent's radar," Milsaps said.</p>
</p>
<p>'A political decision'</p>
<p>After Monday's meeting, Davis said each school has built up alumni and community support over the past several decades, making a merger a difficult sell.</p>
<p>"Those schools may have been created for reasons 50 years ago," Davis said. "But that was 50 years ago. ... It's going to be a political decision, not an economic decision."</p>
<p>Harp said the current budget crisis, though, might be just the kind of push needed to get the mergers going.</p>
<p>Gov. Sonny Perdue has asked state agencies to prepare contingency plans for budget cuts as high as 10 percent, and some legislative leaders have begun suggesting that might not be enough to balance the state's $21.2 billion spending plan.</p>
<p>"I think a 10 percent budget cut may be the political initiative that we have to deal with," Harp said. "I think there may be the political will."</p>
</p>
<p>Morning News reporter Jenel Few contributed to this story.</p>
http://savannahnow.com/brandon-larrabee/2008-12-01/senator-combine-black-colleges-others#commentsBrandon LarrabeeTue, 02 Dec 2008 04:30:00 +0000Brandon Larrabee627509 at http://savannahnow.comSmoking-prevention spending lags, advocates sayhttp://savannahnow.com/exchange/2008-11-30/smoking-prevention-spending-lags-advocates-say
<div><img src="http://sav-cdn.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/story_slideshow_thumb/editorial/images/savannah/mdControlled/cms/2008/11/30/362129950.jpg" alt="" title="Savannah Morning News" class="imagecache imagecache-story_slideshow_thumb imagecache-default imagecache-story_slideshow_thumb_default" width="280" height="118" /><img src="http://sav-cdn.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/story_slideshow_thumb/editorial/images/savannah/mdControlled/cms/2008/11/30/362130086.jpg" alt="" title="Savannah Morning News" class="imagecache imagecache-story_slideshow_thumb imagecache-default imagecache-story_slideshow_thumb_default" width="280" height="198" /><img src="http://sav-cdn.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/story_slideshow_thumb/editorial/images/savannah/mdControlled/cms/2008/11/30/362129830.jpg" alt="" title="Savannah Morning News" class="imagecache imagecache-story_slideshow_thumb imagecache-default imagecache-story_slideshow_thumb_default" width="280" height="172" /></div><p>ATLANTA - This year, as the master settlement agreement between the largest tobacco companies and 46 states turns 10 years old, all 50 states and the District of Columbia will spend $718.1 million on smoking prevention.</p>
<p>In 2005, the most recent year for which data are available, the tobacco companies spent $13.4 billion hawking their products, or about 19 times what states are spending to stop current smokers or to stop nonsmokers from taking up the habit, according to a recent report from a coalition of anti-smoking groups.</p>
<p>"Ten years after the November 1998 state tobacco settlement, we find that most states have failed to keep their promise to use a significant portion of the settlement funds to reduce tobacco's terrible toll on America's children, families and communities," the report says.</p>
<p>It is the latest salvo in an ongoing battle over how states are using the billions of dollars pledged by the tobacco companies to settle allegations that slick marketing campaigns and fraudulent statements by company executives helped hook millions of Americans on products that destroyed their health, leaving states to foot the bill.</p>
<p>"A lot of people on both sides thought (after the settlement that) we were going to enter a new Eden, so to speak, and we haven't done that," said Cathy Callaway, senior representative for state and local campaigns with the Cancer Action Network, the advocacy arm of the American Cancer Society.</p>
<p>Many disappointed</p>
</p>
<p>Instead of using the vast majority of the money to prevent smoking, states are tapping the funds to bankroll roads and bridges, fill in holes in their budgets, or even, in some cases, provide tax cuts. A Government Accountability Office report issued last year found 3.5 percent of the money paid by tobacco companies has been used for prevention, just more than a tenth of what's been used on health-related costs (30 percent) and an eighth of what's been used on budget shortfalls (22.9 percent).</p>
<p>Even the tobacco companies say they're disappointed states aren't essentially using the money to help people avoid the industry's products.</p>
<p>"We think that they should," said Bill Phelps, a spokesman for Altria, the parent company of Philip Morris USA. "And not only have the vast majority of states diverted billions of dollars that many people had hoped would be spent on health-related initiatives or youth smoking prevention, but now many of those same states are seeking massive tax increases or cigarette tax increases to help fund those very same programs."</p>
</p>
<p>No requirement</p>
<p>Dr. Terry Pechacek, associate director for science, office of smoking and health at the CDC, says many states are following his organization's recommendations on how to structure their programs and can make some headway as it is.</p>
<p>"Many states are able to mount a comprehensive program with less than recommended, full funding," he said. "The major difference is, with less than our recommended amount, you can have a program, but it is not reaching all of the population that could be helped."</p>
<p>For their part, states point out that nothing in the agreement requires them to spend anything on smoking prevention.</p>
<p>"The reason there weren't specific instructions in the (agreement) or directions on how the money should be spent is because, in effect although indirect, the money was to be a reimbursement of current and future and past ... state expenditures on smoking-related illnesses," said Scott Pattison, executive director of the National Association of State Budget Officers.</p>
</p>
<p>Brandon Larrabee can be reached at <a href="mailto:brandon.larrabee@morris.com">brandon.larrabee@morris.com</a> or 678-977-3709.</p>
http://savannahnow.com/exchange/2008-11-30/smoking-prevention-spending-lags-advocates-say#commentsExchangeBrandon LarrabeeMon, 01 Dec 2008 04:30:00 +0000Brandon Larrabee626822 at http://savannahnow.comNew tobacco companies spark conflicthttp://savannahnow.com/brandon-larrabee/2008-11-29/new-tobacco-companies-spark-conflict
<p>ATLANTA - Any hope that the nation's tobacco wars would end when the largest cigarette manufacturers and 46 states signed a landmark legal settlement 10 years ago this month has long since dissipated.</p>
<p>Yes, the largest legal battle has ended and smoking rates have declined in the wake of the massive deal, in which the tobacco companies agreed to pay the states billions of dollars in perpetuity to settle claims that smoking-related illnesses had caused huge health care bills that strained state budgets.</p>
<p>But other fights rage on. Anti-smoking advocates are outraged that some states have used many of the proceeds to fund economic development needs or plug budget holes rather than bankrolling aggressive campaigns to persuade Americans to kick the habit.</p>
<p>And the tobacco companies and states have waged a battle to crack down on small manufacturers whose market share blossomed in the wake of the price increases caused by the settlement. Some of those smaller manufacturers are lashing back, attacking the agreement as unconstitutional and filing a federal lawsuit to have it thrown out.</p>
<p>The initial growth and recent decline of those "nonparticipating manufacturers" provides a case study of how, in some cases, the master settlement agreement was only a tentative step toward ending the legal struggles over the role of tobacco in American life.</p>
</p>
<p>New players</p>
<p>David Redmond had been selling low-cost cigarettes in countries like Russia for about five years when the first effort to settle state claims against the tobacco companies was put before Congress, which needed to approve the first version of the agreement. When that measure failed, the states and companies retooled the agreement to bypass Congress.</p>
<p>By then, Redmond had prepared a business plan for the United States. In 1999, he launched Carolina Tobacco Co., hoping to take advantage of the price increases caused by the master settlement agreement.</p>
<p>Redmond decided not to sign the master settlement because the basis of the claims against the big tobacco companies - a pattern of public deception and efforts to market tobacco to young people - didn't apply to Carolina Tobacco, which hadn't been in the American market until after the agreement was signed.</p>
<p>"Therefore, we felt and I felt very strong that it was an admission of guilty to sign the master settlement agreement," Redmond said.</p>
<p>He didn't.</p>
<p>He wasn't alone. Between 1998 and 2007, the market share of nonparticipating manufacturers has surged from 0.5 percent to 5.7 percent, said Bill Phelps, a spokesman for Altria, the parent company of Philip Morris USA, creating a new reality in the industry.</p>
<p>"It's more competitive now than it was in 1998," Phelps said.</p>
</p>
<p>Escrow statutes</p>
<p>But Redmond was also aware of a provision in the master settlement agreement that would affect his ability to compete in the American market - so-called "escrow statutes," which require Carolina Tobacco and other nonparticipating manufacturers to pay into an escrow amount roughly the same amount of money per pack as tobacco companies that did decide to join the agreement.</p>
<p>That didn't mean Redmond agreed with it.</p>
<p>"The idea of an escrow for nonparticipating companies that were not involved in the tort action, not involved in misadvertising, I think is a travesty," he said.</p>
<p>In fact, Redmond said, his company goes out of the way to avoid some of the same behaviors for which state attorneys general and lawmakers hammered the tobacco companies in the years leading up to the settlement. His ads only appear in trade magazines, for example, and there are none of the colorful cartoon characters like Joe Camel that critics said were targeted at youths. Joe Camel and his ilk were banned in the settlement agreement.</p>
<p>At first, companies like Redmond's could recoup some of the money paid into the escrow accounts relatively quickly. But states then changed their laws, and the full payments now sit in escrow for 25 years unless a state decides to pursue a legal claim against the manufacturer. That removes much of Redmond's original advantage in keeping down his costs. Now, he opts to keep his company lean.</p>
<p>"Why should a new company like ours, entering the market, have to pay the same penalty as a misbehaving company?" he asked.</p>
</p>
<p>Payment controversy</p>
<p>The answer is complicated.</p>
<p>Nonparticipating manufacturers say the only reason they are required to make the escrow payments is to artificially increase their prices, preventing them from undercutting the prices of tobacco manufacturers who have signed onto the agreement.</p>
<p>"Effectively, it's a penalty for not agreeing to limit your lobbying, advocacy and advertising. You pay whether you join or you don't join," said Hans Bader, counsel for special projects at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Bader is representing a nonparticipating manufacturer, a cigarette distributor, a retailer and a smoker in a federal lawsuit challenging the agreement.</p>
<p>Similar lawsuits have been turned away by the courts.</p>
<p>Manufacturers who did sign onto the agreement say it's not that simple. Phelps declined to answer questions about whether nonparticipating manufacturers have an unfair advantage over companies like Philip Morris.</p>
<p>But a briefing book distributed by the company to reporters says the reason for the escrow statutes is not necessarily to level the playing field. For one thing, nonparticipating manufacturers only have to put in escrow an amount equal to how much of the settlement payments are based on health care cost, not any of the other claims settled by the agreement</p>
<p>"The escrow funds were established to ensure that funds are available to satisfy state claims, such as for health-care costs, in the event a state obtains a judgment at some point against the non-participating manufacturers, which has not settled with the state and thus has not been released from such claims," the book says.</p>
</p>
<p>A difference</p>
<p>Bader says those judgments will probably never happen. In most of the states involved, he said, the company would have to do something else wrong other than sell a product that can cause health problems. The nonparticipating manufacturer would have to be guilty of the kinds of fraud and abuse that caused the tobacco companies to face a lawsuit in the first place.</p>
<p>"In most states, there's no general right to sue companies because their products raise health care costs," Bader said.</p>
<p>Redmond said his company is careful not to deceive anyone about the dangers of tobacco, making certain he avoids the ethical lapses he says laid the groundwork for the agreement in the first place.</p>
<p>"Whenever I'm asked, 'Will cigarette smoking be harmful to your health?' - I say, 'Yes,' " Redmond said.</p>
<p>For now, at least, that makes no difference when it comes time to pay.</p>
</p>
<p>Brandon Larrabee can be reached at <a href="mailto:brandon.larrabee@morris.com">brandon.larrabee@morris.com</a> or 678-977-3709.</p>
http://savannahnow.com/brandon-larrabee/2008-11-29/new-tobacco-companies-spark-conflict#commentsExchangeBrandon LarrabeeSun, 30 Nov 2008 04:30:00 +0000Brandon Larrabee626428 at http://savannahnow.comOfficials: Tax plan would help state roadshttp://savannahnow.com/brandon-larrabee/2008-11-24/officials-tax-plan-would-help-state-roads
<p>ATLANTA - A push to allow counties to band together and charge a regional sales tax to fund transportation projects would help communities across the state meet their road-building and mass-transit needs, state leaders said Monday.</p>
<p>The comments from key officials came as the Get Georgia Moving coalition began a new campaign to press lawmakers to approve a constitutional amendment allowing the regional sales taxes, known as Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Taxes, or T-SPLOSTs.</p>
<p>"This is not just about solving congestion for metro Atlanta," state Department of Transportation Commissioner Gena Evans told members of the coalition, which includes more than 100 groups ranging from the AAA Auto Club South to the Sierra Club. "This is about economic development for the rest of the state."</p>
<p>Leaders of the group are trying to revive a proposal that fell just three votes short during the hectic close of last year's legislative session. The amendment would allow counties to join together and, if a majority of voters in the region agree, raise the sales tax by a penny on the dollar. The funding would have to be devoted to a predetermined list of projects.</p>
<p>Concerns from members outside of the Atlanta area helped defeat the legislation. While it passed the House, it failed by three votes in the Senate; most of the 18 "no" votes that deprived the amendment of a two-thirds majority came from outside metro Atlanta.</p>
<p>Get Georgia Moving maintains that the plan would actually help other areas of the state fix a variety of traffic issues.</p>
<p>"This is a problem in virtually all parts of the state," said Bill Linginfelter, a Regions Bank executive who chairs the transportation policy committee for the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce.</p>
<p>A 10-county area centered in Savannah, for example, could raise $5.1 billion between 2010 and 2030. That could help with projects improving traffic at the port of Savannah, Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle said in an effort to emphasize that the proposal would not just help Atlanta.</p>
<p>"It also makes sense around the state," he said.</p>
<p>Also at Monday's meeting, Evans signaled that her department was ready to authorize the start of work on up to $1 billion in projects if the federal government passes a proposed stimulus package. But the state won't be able to afford a matching program, she said.</p>
http://savannahnow.com/brandon-larrabee/2008-11-24/officials-tax-plan-would-help-state-roads#commentsBrandon LarrabeeTue, 25 Nov 2008 04:30:00 +0000Brandon Larrabee623207 at http://savannahnow.comState road construction funds weighedhttp://savannahnow.com/brandon-larrabee/2008-11-19/state-road-construction-funds-weighed
<p>ATLANTA - Transportation officials could get tens of billions of dollars for construction by increasing the sales tax, taking over the car tax and raising new fees for driving in metro Atlanta, a consultant told the Department of Transportation board Wednesday.</p>
<p>The ideas were among several options for raising the additional $57 billion to $168 billion needed over the next 20 years to spur economic growth across the state, according to a report by Carrie Thompson of consulting firm McKinsey &amp; Co. That funding could create 320,000 jobs across the state, including 90,000 outside metro Atlanta, over the next two decades and could generate $515 billion in growth over the next 30 years.</p>
<p>The plan calls for using the money to:</p>
<p>Move freight from the Georgia's ports to the rest of the state.</p>
<p>Finish plans for road construction.</p>
<p>Complete blueprints for a high-speed intercity rail system across the state.</p>
<p>Relieve traffic congestion in metro Atlanta.</p>
<p>Raising the needed funds will require new taxes, new fees on drivers, redirecting some of the money the state already raises or a combination of those approaches, Thompson said.</p>
<p>"If you really wanted to cover the whole thing, you're going to need to pull from all of those buckets," she said.</p>
<p>Some of the ideas aren't new. For more than a year, business groups and legislators have pushed measures allowing counties to band together and increase the sales tax by a penny as long as the revenue was used for transportation projects. An eleventh-hour compromise on the tax failed the final night of this year's legislative session when it fell three votes short in the Senate.</p>
<p>The tax would raise wildly varying amounts among regions of the state, McKinsey &amp; Company found. For example, the 20-county metro Atlanta area could raise $46.4 billion between 2010 and 2030, while a 10-county area centered in Savannah could raise $5.1 billion over the same period.</p>
<p>The board next month is expected to recommend a broad range of funding options for the General Assembly to consider during the coming legislative session, which gets under way Jan. 12.</p>
http://savannahnow.com/brandon-larrabee/2008-11-19/state-road-construction-funds-weighed#commentsBrandon LarrabeeThu, 20 Nov 2008 04:30:00 +0000Brandon Larrabee620320 at http://savannahnow.comAuditors: Halls of fame can't support themselveshttp://savannahnow.com/brandon-larrabee/2008-11-18/auditors-halls-fame-cant-support-themselves
<p>ATLANTA - Halls of fame meant to honor Georgians accomplished in aviation, sports, music and golf are unlikely to be able to pay for themselves by the deadlines approved by state lawmakers earlier this year, according to a state report to be issued next week.</p>
<p>"I think it's probably not very realistic (to think) they're going to make it," auditor John Abbey told a House subcommittee looking into state funding for the facilities.</p>
<p>Under the budget act passed by legislators in April:</p>
<p>The Golf Hall of Fame, based in Augusta, and Aviation Hall of Fame, based in Warner Robins, are supposed to be self-sufficient by July 1.</p>
<p>The Music Hall of Fame, located in Macon, is expected to do so two years later.</p>
<p>The Sports Hall of Fame, also in Macon, is scheduled to do so by July 1, 2012.</p>
<p>Abbey, who directs the Department of Audits and Accounts' performance audit operations division, said it was unlikely the halls could meet those deadlines without dramatic changes in attendance or fundraising.</p>
<p>The Golf Hall of Fame, for example, would need to more than double its fundraising earnings to meet the deadline. The hall controls 17.5 acres of land along the Savannah River and is considering three groups' plans that would pair another building, such as a baseball stadium, with a permanent home for the hall.</p>
<p>The report from Abbey's division is likely to be issued next week, auditors told the House subcommittee.</p>
<p>Both chambers have pressed the halls to begin paying for themselves, with some members expressing philosophical qualms about the state running museums and similar facilities. But House members at Tuesday's meeting seemed to be backing away from the deadlines, agreed to in last-minute budget negotiations last year after the House pushed to quickly shut off state funding and Senate members asked for more time.</p>
<p>Subcommittee Chairman Bobby Reese, R-Sugar Hill, said auditors were able to spend more time studying the issue than lawmakers trying to reach agreement on a $21 billion budget.</p>
<p>"They're working with real numbers, not just some number pulled out of the air," Reese said.</p>
<p>Senate leaders, though, now seem more intent on pushing the halls to raise their own funding, with some of the facilities' managers worried the upper chamber is ready to shut off state money in January.</p>
<p>"When we are facing a budget shortfall of $2 billion, we need to evaluate all state expenditures to determine what is most essential and prioritize our spending. ... The Halls of Fame were part of our discussion and are one of the many expenditures we will evaluate as we look toward crafting the budget," Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle said in a statement issued by his office.</p>
<p>At Tuesday's meeting, hall officials asked lawmakers for more time. Dianne Swain, executive director of the Golf Hall of Fame, said the state would be making a mistake by cutting off state funds and essentially closing the monuments.</p>
<p>"I don't think you want to take the investment that the state has made in all the halls of fame, as well as the private investors, and throw it to the side," she said.</p>
http://savannahnow.com/brandon-larrabee/2008-11-18/auditors-halls-fame-cant-support-themselves#commentsBrandon LarrabeeWed, 19 Nov 2008 04:30:00 +0000Brandon Larrabee619376 at http://savannahnow.comLatest controversy exposes rifts in roads agencyhttp://savannahnow.com/local/2008-11-17/latest-controversy-exposes-rifts-roads-agency
<p>ATLANTA - The revelations of Transportation Commissioner Gena Evans' previous relationships with co-workers, former subordinates and state contractors, as well as the tawdry e-mails that flowed from those romances, are the latest in a series of conflicts that have shaken and apparently split the Georgia Department of Transportation.</p>
<p>The e-mails and alleged conflicts of interest, which have prompted self-proclaimed ethics watchdog George Anderson to call for Evans to be fired, follow an attempt by Evans to clean up a financial mess after her controversial ascension to the commissioner's office.</p>
<p>While Evans survived a DOT board committee meeting last week about her fate, it might not be the end of the latest controversy. While there are no scheduled discussions about Evans' future at board and committee meetings scheduled for this week, there are no guarantees the topic won't be raised. One of Evans' loudest critics on the board didn't take part in last week's meetings.</p>
<p>In any case, even the commissioner's supporters concede there are schisms in the department about Evans' leadership.</p>
<p>"To say everybody that we've got that works for DOT is tickled to death about what she's trying to do, the answer would be no," board Chairman Bill Kuhlke said. "The same goes with the board.</p>
<p>"At this point, I would say we've got a board that is together (on most issues). We've got a board right now that I'd have to say would be split on Gena."</p>
</p>
<p>Shaking things up</p>
<p>But Evans and her supporters clearly see the battle over her previous actions as another example of politics within the department and among the DOT and its private partners. Evans has told television stations that she's trying to shake up a good ol' boys network, uncovering and working to resolve a massive budget deficit and fix a lax atmosphere among some employees.</p>
<p>"Any time you make some changes, any time you've got longtime employees, any time there's difference than what we had before, there are going to be people that are disgruntled," Kuhlke said in explaining the source of employee discontent.</p>
<p>The chairman said he has gotten more negative than positive e-mails about Evans, but he said he had asked some of those sending supportive e-mails to stop because the volume was overwhelming.</p>
<p>"In fact, they were coming in so fast from a positive standpoint, that I asked not to send me anymore," he said.</p>
<p>Evans' critics say a tough management style is only part of the problem surrounding the commissioner and that employees are disillusioned. Employees under Evans at previous agencies have reached out to Anderson, and DOT employees have helped fuel recent media reports.</p>
<p>"Employee morale has dropped to an all-time low, and since she took control at DOT, her admitted ethical lapses and continued misconduct have caused employees to lose all respect for Mrs. Evans and leaves her unable to lead this multibillion-dollar department," Anderson said.</p>
</p>
<p>A divided board</p>
<p>Meanwhile, some board members maintain that the deficit Evans is working to fix is the result of a change in accounting standards by the department and shouldn't result in projects being axed.</p>
<p>It's unclear how deep board discontent runs over the e-mails, relationships, deficit and other problems.</p>
<p>Kuhlke said he thought a majority of the members still backed Evans, but some clearly have grievances beyond Evans' relationships and e-mails. Emory McClinton angrily complained at last week's meeting that he still had not received by Thursday an audit report released to the media last Monday.</p>
<p>"We have procedures, and I'd like to see them followed," he said.</p>
<p>Evans insisted a copy of the report has been sent to board members and suggested McClinton simply might not have received his.</p>
<p>And many, including outspoken Evans critic David Doss, are growing weary of the continuing controversy.</p>
<p>"Are we building any roads and bridges?" Doss said. "Are we helping the citizens of Georgia with the transportation system?"</p>
http://savannahnow.com/local/2008-11-17/latest-controversy-exposes-rifts-roads-agency#commentsNewsBrandon LarrabeeMon, 17 Nov 2008 12:45:33 +0000Brandon Larrabee618842 at http://savannahnow.comRoads commissioner keeps job despite controversyhttp://savannahnow.com/brandon-larrabee/2008-11-13/roads-commissioner-keeps-job-despite-controversy
<p>ATLANTA - Embattled state transportation commissioner Gena Evans survived yet another controversy about her personal life Thursday as the state Department of Transportation board decided to keep her on the job.</p>
<p>Board members took no action on Evans after a two-hour, closed-door session to handle legal and personnel issues - the commissioner's status being chief among those issues. The first woman to lead the transit department has come under fire in recent weeks for alleged conflicts of interest and tawdry e-mails unearthed by media organizations and self-proclaimed ethics watchdog George Anderson.</p>
<p>Board members largely declined to comment on the meeting beyond reiterating that the panel took no action. While the gathering was technically a committee meeting, only one member of the full board failed to attend the meeting or participate by telephone.</p>
<p>Most of the allegations have centered on romantic relationships between Evans and co-workers or state contractors when she worked at the Georgia Building Authority and the Georgia State Financing and Investment Commission.</p>
<p>"I think there was pretty much a consensus that those things happened a number of years ago (and) it wasn't under the jurisdiction of the DOT," said board Chairman Bill Kuhlke, who spoke briefly with reporters after the meeting.</p>
<p>Kuhlke said the board's concerns included off-color language Evans used in e-mails with at least one boyfriend and the appearance that "maybe at times she didn't tell the exact truth" in some television interviews during the controversy. Evans appeared to contradict herself when asked about her involvement in one state project during a pair of interviews with Atlanta television station WAGA.</p>
<p>"That is a concern," Kuhlke said. "But with what she's been going through for the last three weeks, sometimes you say things you wish you didn't say."</p>
<p>Kuhlke said he believed Evans still had the support of a majority of the board and that members considered the matter closed. Even one of Evans' most outspoken critics suggested it's unlikely the board will discuss the controversy again.</p>
<p>"There's not any plan that I know of," board member David Doss said.</p>
<p>This is the second time in seven months that board members have decided to keep Evans despite questions about the intersection of her private relationships and public duties. In April, then-board Chairman Mike Evans resigned his post to pursue a romantic relationship with the commissioner, then known as Gena Abraham. The board voted to retain Gena Evans, and she and Mike Evans were married in September.</p>
http://savannahnow.com/brandon-larrabee/2008-11-13/roads-commissioner-keeps-job-despite-controversy#commentsBrandon LarrabeeFri, 14 Nov 2008 04:30:00 +0000Brandon Larrabee616711 at http://savannahnow.comEthics gadfly: Fire state roads commissionerhttp://savannahnow.com/brandon-larrabee/2008-11-12/ethics-gadfly-fire-state-roads-commissioner
<p>ATLANTA - Self-proclaimed government ethics watchdog George Anderson called on state officials to fire state Department of Transportation Commissioner Gena Evans in the wake of reports that she repeatedly has become romantically involved with co-workers and employees of state contractors.</p>
<p>Anderson said Wednesday he either had filed or planned to file a barrage of complaints against Evans with the ethics officer of the Georgia Department of Transportation; the Office of the State Inspect General and the state Department of Law.</p>
<p>Allegations that Evans sent sexually explicit e-mails on state computers and repeatedly placed herself in potential conflicts of interest burst into public view in a series of recent media reports. A letter by Anderson to the transportation department board, dated Oct. 1, sparked those reports.</p>
<p>A transit board committee is expected to discuss the allegations at a meeting today.</p>
<p>But Anderson said a focus on the e-mails had distracted some observers from the key issue - that Evans often found herself romantically entangled with co-workers, former subordinates or contractors on state projects involving her previous agencies, the Georgia Building Authority and Georgia State Financing and Investment Commission.</p>
<p>"This is not about explicit e-mails on state computers," Anderson said. "This complaint is about Gena Evans' own admission on camera - on camera - to repeated violations of the governor's ethics policy."</p>
<p>In a wide-ranging news conference conducted a few floors down from Evans' office, Anderson also called on Inspector General Liz Archer to recuse herself because of her alleged friendship with Evans. He also blasted state officials who have not acted against Evans since he first wrote them almost six weeks ago.</p>
<p>"The question remains: How much embarrassment will the GDOT board endure and how long before the governor and the lieutenant governor do something and they find the courage to uphold their sworn duty and dismiss Mrs. Evans?" Anderson asked.</p>
<p>Anderson said he would also file complaints against Gov. Sonny Perdue and Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle for failing to take action against Evans.</p>
<p>Bert Brantley, press secretary for Perdue, dismissed any allegations that Perdue or Cagle had erred by not trying to terminate Evans.</p>
<p>"She serves at the pleasure of the board, not at the pleasure of the governor or the lieutenant governor," Brantley said.</p>
<p>Evans, later passing by the location of Anderson's press conference, shrugged off allegations by Anderson, known for his prolific filing of open records requests and ethics complaints.</p>
<p>"Consider the source," she told two reporters before boarding an elevator.</p>
http://savannahnow.com/brandon-larrabee/2008-11-12/ethics-gadfly-fire-state-roads-commissioner#commentsBrandon LarrabeeThu, 13 Nov 2008 04:30:00 +0000Brandon Larrabee616196 at http://savannahnow.comAudit: State roads financial trouble realhttp://savannahnow.com/brandon-larrabee/2008-11-11/audit-state-roads-financial-trouble-real
<p>ATLANTA - A sweeping audit of the Georgia Department of Transportation found that the agency overstated its federal funding by nearly $2.4 billion before the last fiscal year, leading to a massive deficit.</p>
<p>The shortfall has shut down local road construction aid and threatens the jobs of hundreds of state employees.</p>
<p>Officials with the roads department said the audit supports their contention that some of the previous transportation commissioner's funding methods were unconstitutional and are ultimately responsible for the deficit now rocking the agency.</p>
<p>Others, however, have said the shortfall actually is rooted in little more than a change in accounting systems from an "accrual basis" to a "cash basis."</p>
<p>"Much has been discussed about the appropriate accounting method for GDOT, and we believe that the findings of this audit effectively resolve any further debate and closes the door on that discussion," said a statement issued by the agency.</p>
<p>At issue is whether the transportation department must have cash on hand to fully fund its long-term projects or whether it is sufficient to account for the funding projected to flow to the agency in future years. Auditors and state attorneys essentially have told board members that the funding must be on hand, according to a statement backed up by the report issued Monday.</p>
<p>"Speculation that 'accounting changes' were responsible for the 'preliminary' deficit detected during the course of this audit is not correct," the report states. "Based on our examination, business practices changed during fiscal year 2007 ... appear to be responsible for the 'preliminary deficit.'"</p>
<p>State Transportation Board member David Doss, one of the most outspoken critics of the cutbacks following the deficit, said he has not had a chance to read the report, but he remains skeptical.</p>
<p>The deficit has prompted the department to cut off millions of dollars in state aid for local road projects, angering state lawmakers who say the agency should instead lay off hundreds of employees as part of any plan to right the financial ship.</p>
<p>"The tragedy here is that we have basically shut down road and bridge projects in this state for the past 11 months," Doss said. "And the result is: We have put thousands of Georgians out of work as a result in the private sector, and of course, there are calls for us to lay off hundreds of GDOT employees at a time when the state of Georgia has the second-highest unemployment rate in the United States."</p>
<p>The report stated that "the financial position marked notable improvement" because of steps taken in the last fiscal year, which ended June 30.</p>
<p>Embattled Transportation Commissioner Gena Evans has made those changes the centerpiece of her agenda.</p>
<p>"The department will continue to move forward in its effort to build upon our commitment to greater fiscal accountability and efficient and effective stewardship of taxpayers dollars," the department's statement said.</p>
http://savannahnow.com/brandon-larrabee/2008-11-11/audit-state-roads-financial-trouble-real#commentsBrandon LarrabeeWed, 12 Nov 2008 04:30:00 +0000Brandon Larrabee614628 at http://savannahnow.com